This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

You might not have known Joe Taylor, but if you picked up the Sunday Star in the 1980s to find out who scored on Hockey Night in Canada, you definitely knew his work.

Taylor worked at the Toronto Star on and off for more than 15 years, starting in 1959. Though his name never appeared on the page, he was one of the people working meticulously and quietly behind the scenes to build the sports scoreboard until he retired in 1991. He died on May 20 at age 87 after a lengthy illness.

Gale Beeby was hired to work on the scoreboard pages with Taylor in 1981. She worked during the week and he worked on weekends, commuting from Collingwood.

“He would never ever fail to show up regardless of what the weather was like,” Beeby said.

Back then, every score had to be inputted manually, with a calculator on hand to work out batting averages and win percentages. No headlines to write, only names and numbers, and getting them right means everything.

Article Continued Below

Phil Bingley recalls that when he was the Star’s sports editor, he never had to worry about picking up the paper and seeing a mistake in the statistics: “Joe just didn’t make mistakes.”

Taylor’s former colleagues remember him as a quiet person with a good sense of humour, a runner who loved amateur sports and fitness.

“You needed to look around to know he was working, because you wouldn’t hear him say much,” says columnist and former sports editor Dave Perkins. “But when he spoke it tended to be a wise observation.”

Before joining the Star, Taylor worked as an old-fashioned copy boy in The Canadian Press newsroom. He also worked for British United Press and the Times of Zambia in Africa, among other publications.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com